Perth Voice Interactive

AFTER years in the shadow realm, East Perth’s finally getting a lighting upgrade, starting late 2021.

For years a lack of lighting’s been one of the main issues locals have asked Perth council to fix.

Back in 2017 East Perth resident Tony Ransom told a council meeting “for the last 10 or 15 years we have been asking for the street lights to be improved in that general area.

“Any chance that the street lights can be done first to improve security, so you can at least see what you are being attacked by?”

Lighting upgrades start along Adelaide Terrace late 2021, and the overpass on that street will be artistically lit up in early 2022 at a cost of $80,000 following a notice of motion by deputy lord mayor Sandy Anghie last week. 

The East Perth Community Group is thankful more lighting’s coming along Adelaide Terrace but pleaded for the overpass to be lit up sooner. 

“We need to see some deliverables that are not just more plans,” EPCG treasurer Lesley Warren told last week’s council meeting.

The EPCG had delivered a detailed and costed proposal for lighting the overpass to commissioners, but didn’t make any headway. Their plan was cheaper, costed at about $50,000.

Ms Warren said the city’s own lighting plan says the overpass is meant to be a landmark and gateway, but its surrounds have “very little lighting” and are “unsafe and uninviting”.

“This neighbourhood precinct looks very tired with old footpaths, physical assets and many empty buildings, and little looks vibrant and alive except the community, and lighting would help a lot.” She said Cr Anghie’s motion was “a very welcome minor urban intervention” but delaying it til next year seemed unnecessary.

Despite East Perth’s dimness, the council last week approved a new $20,000 promo campaign to market Perth as the “City of Lights” based on the 1962 campaign when Perth lit up so astronaut John Glenn could see us from space. 

by DAVID BELL

A LAND swap between Vincent council and a local developer could lead to a new public open space on Beaufort Street, but the council could also pocket a $1 million windfall.

The council owns a third of a carpark on Beaufort Street that’s flanked by privately-owned blocks which may end up with six storey developments on them. 

If the council had the northern section of the block it could be consolidated with it’s mini-carpark on Barlee Street and redeveloped into a 700sqm public space.

Development

Palassis Holdings owns the rest of the carpark and is keen on the swap, provided the land becomes a park which related to its development: that’s estimated to increase the value of Palassis’ land by $300,000. 

Vincent’s now consulting on whether to go ahead with the swap, sell the land and fund another park, or just keep it.

“Each option for the Barlee Street Carpark has its advantages and I’m looking forward to exploring these options with community members, business owners and visitors,” mayor Emma Cole said in a statement.

in the heart of Mount Lawley would support the recovery of Beaufort Street while helping to address a shortfall in green space near the entertainment strip.

“The sale of the land would give us about $1 million to put towards another new park or the upgrade of an existing space in Vincent.

“Two thirds of the car park are privately owned, and if we kept our piece of land we could keep the car park operating for as long as we have a lease over these neighbouring properties.”

The park isn’t funded: The council would have to find between $500,000 and $1m to build it. 

Between the cost of leasing out the other two thirds of the block and managing the carpark, it currently runs at a loss. It’s usually about half full on a weekend night, and pretty quiet in the day.

Long term advocate for the strip and past Beaufort Street Network chair Joshua O’Keefe isn’t keen on the land swap-to-park plan. 

He says Beaufort Street is degraded and the basics need to be fixed instead of “another underperforming glamour project”.

Consultation’s open until March 19 on imagine.vincent. wa.gov.au/barleestreetcarpark

PERTH council’s new investment policy will keep ratepayers’ money out of risky funds, but doesn’t prevent investments in companies selling weapons, prostitution, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, or those contravening human rights.

After several missed deadlines the council this week got around to updating its five-year-old investment policy, which is meant to be updated yearly. The outdated version is considered a “medium risk” by its risk committee.

The city has consulted with other councils including Melville which struggled for years to recover from risky investments that fell over during the global financial crisis. 

Perth’s new policy no longer allows investments in slightly-risky “A-3” rated institutions, whereas they could previously stick up to 10 per cent of their short term investments with them. 

Sub-prime

Melville council’s current policy forbids them from ever putting money in sub-prime mortgages again, and also forbids investing in companies that primarily make money from “armaments, tobacco, alcohol, gambling” or activity that “contravenes human rights or… labour laws”.

Perth council put that in the too-hard basket. 

While it doesn’t currently have any investments with missile manufacturers or private mercenary outfits, a staff report says figuring out whether companies engage in those practices “can be notoriously difficult”.

And while Vincent and Bayswater councils are trying to pull their investments out of banks supporting the fossil fuel industry, Perth’s finance staff reckon the environmentally friendly banks aren’t up to scratch: “The officer recommendation would be to not accept lower quality investments simply to show alignment to an ideological position.”

Perth council currently has about $182 million cash investments across six banks and just 2 per cent of that cash is with a non-fossil fuel supporter, Suncorp.

by DAVID BELL

“Broken Beaufort needs more thought than just another ‘community space’ to bring it back,” long time Beaufort Street advocate JOSHUA O’KEEFE writes. 

I’VE thought long and hard over the last few days about the request by the City of Vincent for the community to provide comments on the future of the Barlee Street Carpark.

The language used in the consultation promotion has an obvious persuasion to end up with a ‘green, leafy space’ built here (with concept plans even being produced). 

All things considered I have come to the conclusion that my response will be … ‘thanks but no thanks’. And I encourage yours to be the same. 

The last thing we need is to spend a rare million dollar windfall on another underperforming glamour project.

Here are my reasons: 

• In 2020, the city’s financial health rating was one of the worst in WA. A ‘green, leafy space/town square/piazza’ will cost at least $1 million. Mary Street Piazza, built in 2014 was around $300K and View Street, North Perth was upward of $700K in 2019 for some paving and a light. The City can’t afford it. Plain and simple. And don’t forget there’s already a piazza 300m south (left mostly unactivated by both the City and the local town team) and one proposed just north of Walcott Street by City of Stirling.  

• The current state of the public realm of Beaufort Street is an atrocious mess and is frankly embarrassing for the brand and competitiveness of Beaufort Street (see attached pics). Clearly replacement and/or maintenance through ‘annual operational costs’ isn’t a real thing because those kerbs and traffic islands are remnants from decades ago and the laneways are falling to bits. There’s only so far a reputation of being quirky and grimy will get us when the street is unsafe in parts. How are we ever going to compete with Inglewood and the various public spaces in Perth city with such a degraded place when shopping centres are already succeeding at killing the main streets that aren’t keeping up. 

• We should be working smarter not harder with our public spaces. Another formal space/square/piazza will not fix the problem. It’s not even been defined what problem we are fixing, actually. Street corners are left empty or with dying shrubs which are total opportunities for invigoration and out of the box thinking as places designed by and for our local teens or kids (for example). Street corners could become a deconstructed town centre and mini destinations in themselves and all within the current unused public verge area and would add way more value than ‘green spaces’ we are apparently in such short supply of. Don’t forget there is Hyde Park less than 400m west of the street and the huge Forrest Park 400m in the other direction. We also have the leafy front yard of St Albans church, which I understand is open to the community and giant Birdwood Square opposite the Brisbane Hotel. The recently named local laneways could be reimagined to be channels of activity, creative hubs and value adds to adjoining businesses in ways which haven’t even been dreamt up yet because they haven’t been given the opportunity. Instead they are rotting and unsafe. The Beaufort Street Network worked in partnership with landscape architecture students of UWA to reimagine Beaufort Street with big and small interventions some time ago. These resources and ideas could inform a total rethink of the streets design and interactivity at a fraction of the cost. 

• The car parking site should absolutely be redeveloped by a private developer but the City should be fighting hard for integrated community outcomes if the land is sold to fund other initiatives. Unfortunately, we cant have it both ways. Although I will always advocate to not ‘save’ car parks they do play a role in the function of the town centre and will have to be negotiated /stipulated on this site whether that be through Planning Policy or by putting caveats on the title before sale or as a condition of sale. Others will have a better idea how to broker this better than me.

IGA up the road in Mt Lawley seemed to develop a good model of public private parking arrangements. 

Councillors have a responsibility to set businesses and residents up for success by making the right decisions at the right time using a number of informing factors. 

Unfortunately positive feedback from ‘a few folks’ and another ribbon cutting is none of these things while the rest of the place is literally crumbling around it. 

You won’t find many people more passionate than me when it comes to this street and where the investment is needed. I walk up and down it multiple times per day using the street and talking with businesses so I feel like I have a little bit of insight on the issue.